Magpie Tales #49

Magpie #49

This little story was written for Magpie Tales

I took the photograph from its envelope for about the umpteenth time since it had arrived in the mail this morning.  It was a photograph of my three sisters.  The one on the left is Catherine, a gifted pianist and the one with the sweetest nature.  In the middle is Ella, the eldest, dependable and competent; she knew what she wanted from life and how to get it.  Pansy, to the right, is the youngest, stubborn as a mule with the temper of a wildcat.  I loved all three and soon they would be with me, setting sail from England to join me in New York.  They had all remained spinsters and I had persuaded them to leave England to help me set up a new family business.  It was selfish of me really - I wanted them with me and, hopefully, it would make them forget about that damned suffragette movement they had become involved in.  It was January now and I could hardly believe that in just three months time, we would all be reunited. 

I don't know what happened at that point..... perhaps I fell asleep for a while...... I felt lightheaded and everything seemed hazy.  The photograph had fallen on to my lap.  I held it up once more and couldn't make sense of what I saw.  The photograph seemed to have aged.  It was faded and dog-eared at the corners...... but the worst thing of all was that the outlines of my sisters were blurred..... and their faces..... I couldn't see their faces...... they seemed to be disappearing.  I felt a dreadful feeling of foreboding but could not think why.

"So what did you do Archie?" Mary asked.  "What happened then?"

"I ordered them all to tear up their tickets, the ones for their passage on Titanic, which they did.... they always took notice of their big brother," the old man replied.  "I went back to England instead and joined them there..... it didn't stop their carry-ons in that blasted women's movement, but at least they didn't end up on the ocean floor.  I saved their lives, you see."  

Archie smiled with satisfaction knowing that he held their attention completely.  They had all heard the story before, everyone.... residents in the home and carers alike, that story and more besides.  Old Archie had never had three sisters - he had no family left and got no visitors.  He was unaffected by this.  What he liked to do was cut out photographs from newspapers and magazines and make up stories about them.  He was one heck of a storyteller.

Magpie Tales ~ Mag 47

Mag 47

Birthday

Whenever our birthdays came around, we carried out the same ritual.  We had made a promise to each other.  Today it was mine and Amelia's - we were twins.  Edmund's birthday is in June.  The year we'd bought those little sculptures, one for each of us, was very traumatic, for me anyway.  Amelia was leaving for Africa.  She's a nurse and she was joining a missionary hospital.  Edmund, a computer programmer, had secured a top notch job in America.  Everything happened at once.  They were leaving me all alone in the U.K.  It was bad enough to be parted from my older brother, but an absolute wrench to be separated from my twin sister.  So when we saw the sculptures in the store, we made a pact then that we'd each get one and, on our birthdays, we would put them in a prominent place, knowing that each of us was thinking deeply of the others.

The last time we'd all been together was six years ago.  Edmund and Amelia had managed to get time off and they flew over that June to spend Edmund's birthday with me in England.  It had been wonderful!

I brought the cardboard box down from upstairs and unwrapped my sculpture.  Just as I was placing it on the mantelpiece, the telephone rang.  It could either be Edmund or Amelia, but it was too early - they always telephoned late in the evening, however I was mistaken and delighted to hear Edmund's voice.

"Hi little sis.  I hope you're not busy," he said, "because if you open your door, there are two visitors on your front porch."

I flew to the door just as he was putting his mobile 'phone back in his pocket, and standing next to him was Amelia. The three of us began whooping and jumping up and down like children from the nursery...... and soon there were three identical sculptures on the mantelpiece.   

This little piece was written for Magpie Tales, which you will find here.